Basic Trope: A duo consisting of an animal and a human (or at the very least, humanoid) that portrays the animal as the more intelligent one.
- Straight: "The Adventures of Scott and Stanley" is a show about the two titular characters - Scott, a 16 year old boy, and his pet cat Stanley. Stanley is a Talking Animal who is more intelligent than Scott.
- Exaggerated: Stanley is a very high-leveled Intellectual Animal. Scott is the logical extreme of Too Dumb to Live.
- Downplayed:
- Both Scott and Stanley are fairly smart, but Stanley is even more intelligent.
- Both Scott and Stanley are rather goofy, but Stanley tends to be the more consistently serious of the two.
- Justified: Cats are generally fairly smart animals in real life.
- Inverted: Scott is the smart one, and Stanley is a Cloud Cuckoolander.
- Subverted: Scott was Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Double Subverted: But only that one time.
- Parodied: Stanley replaces Scott in the spelling bee due to his higher intelligence. Nobody seems to notice or care that a cat is competing.
- Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Scott or Stanley is the more intelligent one can vary depending on the episode.
- Averted:
- Scott and Stanley are of equal intelligence.
- There are no animal-human duos in the work.
- Enforced: "Let's make the smarter one an animal. That'll be funny."
- Lampshaded: "My own cat is smarter than me!"
- Invoked: A Mad Scientist turns Stanley into an Uplifted Animal and gives him humanlike intelligence, but doesn't give Scott any reinforcements.
- Exploited: Stanley helps Scott with situations he'd have difficulty with due to his intelligence.
- Defied: Scott is fed up with his cat being smarter than him, and decides that one way or another, he's going to gain intelligence.
- Discussed: "Scott's cat is such a genius, I wonder if he does his homework for him."
- Conversed: "I wonder why cartoon animals are always smarter than their owners."
- Played for Laughs: A Running Gag is Stanley being smarter than his owner and getting into humorous situations.
- Played for Drama: Scott feels self-conscious due to his own pet being smarter than him.
Back to Smart Animal, Average Human
